Culture and the issue of design
USA
The choice of architectural styles of housing in the USA is vast. ered an unsystematic, inefficient system of building, on-site con-
The style mostly used for light-frame building is a modified ver- struction has become a highly organised system, capable of
sion of the vernacular or traditional US house: porch, façade churning out a traditional-looking house in less than a month.
with neo-classical ornaments and pitched roof. The highly effi- The simple application of design to a stick-frame house al-
cient method of light-frame building is a systemised process and lows US homeowners to get what they want – space and techni-
hence part of system building, although the actual construction cal comfort on the inside and the “home” look on the outside –
work takes place on site. A house that is categorised as prefab- for an affordable price. Houses are almost always presented as
ricated, on the other hand, is firmly linked to modern architecture, variable products with a resale value in the real estate market.
i.e. minimalist design and usually a flat roof. This, too, is built However varied the styles may be, the overwhelming tendency
using building system techniques as most people would define toward the traditional building type is painstakingly uncreative.
them – but mainly in the factory. Styles are loosely tagged as, for example, Georgian, Spanish
Colonial, Mediterranean, Victorian and Greek Revival, and there
Stick-frame houses is even the option to compromise with a melange of styles (26).
Remarkably, over 95 % of new homeowners in the USA have Quadrant Homes is one of the most profitable housing com-
never spoken to an architect, mostly because they own contrac- panies in the USA and owes its success to its adaptation of Eiji
tor-made stick-frame homes, but also because the housing in- Toyoda’s lean principles. Founded in Seattle in 1969, the com-
dustry does well without architects. Almost all wood and steel pany sold over 1,000 houses in 2003 alone, producing over 250
elements, connections, façade components and components million USD in revenue. Prior to 1996, Quadrant produced and
such as stairs, roofing systems and mechanical systems are stored building elements (build-to-stock strategy); today the
standardised and industrially produced. Style features such as company produces when the orders come in. The firm uses an
gables, columns, porticos and endless types of façade veneers appealing marketing strategy, and homeowners are offered
are pasted on the main structure like masks. Previously consid- choice, quality and the security of various structural, technical
The housing
The housing
Thebuilding
housing
building
industry
building
industry
systems
industry
systems
(adapted
systems
(adapted
from
(adapted
from
Prof.Prof.
from
Halman)
Prof.
Halman)
Halman)
a Japanese
Japanese
Japanese
modelmodel
- model b American
- American
- American
and Dutch
and Dutch
and
model
Dutch
model - c Western
- model - Western
model
Western
model
- model
- -
centralized
centralized
centralized balanced
balanced
balanced decentralized
decentralized
decentralized
25 26
The house-building industry in different countries Windermere, Forsyth County, Georgia
Whereas the centralised housing industry prevalent in Japan (a) is more 700 homes sprouted in this finely groomed housing development,
efficiently controlled, the balanced relationship of housing developers and which began on site in 2002. A patchwork of derivations of borrowed style
contractors in countries such as the Netherlands or the USA (b) offers more elements on one street, or even on one house, is not uncommon.
options of quality. The decentralised relationship (c) prevalent in Germany
and Austria is diversified and supports the individual builder.
50 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
and environmental warranties. Advanced software makes cus- How do architects go about conceptualising, developing, mar-
tomising easy. Each house, built in the wood framing method on keting and building the prefab house in the USA? The business
site, takes 54 days to build. The workload is scheduled in such a of prefabricated architecture is challenging.
way that every construction stage is synchronised at six houses Typically, an architect comes up with a design, finds a con-
per day. This example of system building is effectively an inverse tractor to fund and build a prototype and then finds a developer
assembly line – the different stages of the “factory” move from to manufacture the product. Another strategy places the devel-
house to house. oper as the central figure. The developer, more experienced with
real estate fluctuations and usually backed up with more capital,
Prefabricated housing brings in the architect to design a house system and a builder
Eye-catching websites on prefabricated housing like www.fab- to produce the system components, has a prototype built and
prefab.com and www.prefabs.com are spreading the trend in organises the marketing strategy. A prefab home builder, Living
modern architecture, which was previously limited to the design- Homes of Santa Monica, California, for example, works with this
conscious (28, 29). Insiders seek inspiration through trend- strategy, featuring two or three architects and promising the nec-
setters like Dwell magazine. American designers like Michelle essary expertise in building and management. Another company,
Kaufmann, Rocio Romero (27), Marmol Radziner and Associates Parco Homes, is run by an architect with a team of experts from
are well-known names to prefab aficionados. The Internet pro-
vides the potential homeowner (prefab or not) with choices of
materials, arrangements and sizes, and when they have finished
shopping, they can ring up the total price, usually not including
foundations and public utilities. Fabprefab, a platform for both
on-the-market and potential prefab homes from all over the
world, proves that the interest in prefab exists on a global scale.
28
Abiquiu House, Abiquiu, New Mexico, Anderson Anderson
Architecture, 2009
The house was built with readily available prefabricated elements and
industrial products – however, it is not strictly a prefab house but rather
a one-off design.
27
LV Series Home, Perryville, Missouri, Rocio Romero, 2000
The minimalistic LV Series Home is factory-built as a kit of parts. It is built
with steel posts and OSB panels, a simple, durable, green and cost-effec-
tive solution with scope for many design and technical options.
SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG 51
the real estate, business management and engineering fields. In Consistent with all strategies is that the architect cannot pro-
this way, the prefabricated house system is designed and devel- duce the prefab product alone; the architect needs a business
oped while all the other aspects of the product including produc- companion because the prefab house is a factory product and
tion and marketing are pursued, thus ensuring quality control. requires much more than a good design in order to sell (30).
Strategies for marketing the prefabricated house
consultants marketing
architect builder prototype developer PRODUCT 29
Strategies for marketing the prefabricated house
Johnson Creek weeHouse,
1 The linear strategy Honesdale, Pennsylvania,
Alchemy Architects, 2008
consultants marketing
The weeHouse design is based on
fully fitted modules the size of a
consultants shipping container. Since 2002,
some 20 houses of this type –
with varying façade materials and
architect builder prototype developer PRODUCT
module combinations – have been
built.
architect 1 The linear strategy
Strategies for marketing the prefabricated house
builder
consultants marketing consultants
developer PRODUCT
prototype
architect builder prototype developer PRODUCT architect
marketing
builder
a1 Linear strategy
The linear strategy
2 The centralized strategy with developer as central figure
developer PRODUCT
consultants
consultants prototype
builder
marketing
architect architect /
prototype
developer
b2 Centralised strategy
The centralized withwith
strategy developer asascentral
developer centralfigure
figure
(Example: Living Homes)
builder
PRODUCT
marketing
developer PRODUCT consultants
30
business plan
(development) builder
prototype Strategies for marketing the prefabricated house
The marketing strategies for prefab houses with linear (a) and
3c Centralised
Centralized strategy witharchitect
strategy with architect
andand developer
developer as central
as central figure figure centralised (b, c) options
architect of
/ development.
(Example: Parco Homes)
marketing prototype
developer
PRODUCT
2 The centralized strategy with developer as central figure
52 SYSTE M S I N HOUS I NG
marketing
